DIY or traditional publishing?

Self-publishing

So what's involved in self-publishing?

In self-publishing you are the publisher and there's nothing difficult about being the publisher of your own book.

People often mistakenly think that the printer, or the book production agency is the publisher. No. In self-publishing, the author is the publisher. You don't need to set yourself up legally as a publisher, or pay any fees. You simply name yourself on the copyright page of your book as the publisher and manuscript copyright holder, and people can only use your material according to your terms. Hey presto, you are now the publisher. 

Contract-free publishing: If you're choosing a traditional publisher there is no publishing deal without a legal contract. Many are just standard documents but there are snags for the unwary. Once you sign a contract the book becomes the property of the publisher; it is no longer yours. You have signed over the copyright and there will be conditions attached. You may be signing away the look of the book, the cover design, editing control, the title, and anything certain about the return of copyright to you (so you can make your own decisions about the future of your book). Some publishers will be more flexible than others. But if you are self-publishing the copyright remains yours, no-one else can reproduce its content without your permission and the book will look and read just as you want it to.

Royalties: Traditional publishers will give you what are called royalties. These are essentially payments to you based on sales. But most people don't realise they only amount to an average 10% of the retail price of your book. Of course, the publisher meets your printing costs and distribution costs - and some marketing costs - from what they make on the book, but 10% back on the retail price of your book is not much. If you decide to self-publish you will have to meet your own printing costs up front and do your own distribution, but your returns should be better than 10% of your costs - unless you are giving the book away! In self-publishing you won't be getting any royalties but sales will be recouping some or all of your costs.

The appeal of the niche market: Often people who self-publish are happy to address a niche market that might not be attractive or lucrative for a traditional publisher, eg., a book on the soils of Niue Island will not interest a traditional publisher but will be of interest to specialist academic libraries, prospectors, researchers and leaders in the Pacific Islands, and the author will no doubt have access to these networks. This scenario can be multiplied a thousand times over for many writers on many subjects. There will almost always be groups of people interested in what you have to say when traditional publishers won't be. 

Making changes to the book. With the larger print runs done by traditional publishers an author is having to wait until the publisher decides to reprint - if they ever do.  Until then you are unable to make changes or improvements to your book. If they make the decision not to reprint, the copyright will be returned to you in time. If you self-publish, none of this is an issue: you only do a small print run - just the number of books you think you can move for a start. If there is anything you want to change about the book - a few errors that got past the editors or improvements to a character or plugging holes in the plot -  then you can make them to the next (small?) print run at little extra cost.

Why the growth in self-publishing ?

Developments in digital printing technology: The days of the cumbersome presses that relied on economies of scale ( large print runs) to break even are over - at least when it comes to books. Digital printing presses are smaller, more efficient, more "intelligent" and faster to set up than they have ever been. So, small, quick print runs are now a possibility, making cost less of a hurdle for authors. And the difference in quality between books produced on conventional presses and digital printers is vanishingly small. The whole digital printing process is quick: maybe 10 days or less between signing off on the proof, and delivery to your address. And it makes another small reprint a breeze. 

The online bookstore and e-books: The arrival on the scene of Amazon and other digital bookstores allowing you to create your books on line, print them overseas at no cost, and providing the tools for you to create them is a game-changer. Hopeful writers can now have a  go who would never have considered it possible 20-30 years ago that they could ever write a book and reach a potential world market.

The digitally connected world. People are increasingly living  and communicating online. The international digital world is now our living space. Self-publishing has gone online too and in the process has become accessible to all.

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Distribution and marketing

Go here for a lot more on marketing and distribution.

Traditional Publishers

You need to know that a book placed in a bookstore through traditional publishing and distribution does not guarantee sales. Bookstores typically take a book on a sale-or-return basis and if it doesn't sell it goes back to the distributor after about a month. Many books do. A bookshop needs to make an effort to display your book.

Self-Publishing

Traditional publishers also rely heavily on authors to make sales themselves, eg., by speaking and promoting. If you publish and print your own book that's what you'll be doing anyway and you may sell more books for your efforts than a traditional publisher will.

"But I don't want to have to market and distribute my book!"(A lot of self-publishing authors complain about this.) But if you want your books to move you have to be prepared to put your boots on. Remember, most books don't make a penny for traditional publishers, but are subsidised by those that do well.

You could do worse than self-publish.